Distributed computing systems may include computers grouped together via a network to work on a common objective. Often each computer operates autonomously within the network on a job that has been divided into many tasks. By dividing a problem into many tasks across many computers, the processing time for the problem can be reduced. Distributed computing systems are also useful in applications where data produced in one location is used in another location. An example of distributed computing systems is a distributed network file system, such as those found in a corporate network connecting multiple users computers. Another example of a distributed computing system is a distributed database or distributed information processing system. A distributed database may have data in multiple locations that multiple computers in a network access when performing tasks. A distributed information processing system may be a cloud computing environment or a network based service such as on-line banking, social media, or internet marketing.
In distributed systems, there may be a common set of jobs or tasks that are performed periodically (e.g., daily, hourly, etc.). Each computer (e.g., server) in a distributed computing network may be configured with a feature implemented to automatically execute a certain set of jobs at a given time and/or date. The jobs may execute on a periodic basis in the background of the distributed computing network. The data for the jobs may be received from multiple locations or from a shared job queue, for example. A crontab is an example of a feature implemented to automatically execute jobs. A crontab is a configuration installed on each computer (e.g., server) in a distributed computing system in which each entry in the crontab describes a job. Each entry also includes a date and/or time for executing the task and the command(s) to execute.
While the automation of jobs within a distributed computing system is useful, monitoring and management of loading of the jobs in the system is currently inadequate.